Pork and Cancer by Daniel H. Kress, M. D.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 1, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 30.

Pork and Cancer

By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.

Alarming Ravages of Cancer Inseparably Connected with Flesh Eating

By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.

"Why did God make the swine, if it is not to be eaten? — For the same reason that He made the rat, the cat, the mouse, and other scavengers."

IN the classification of unclean animals as recorded in Leviticus 11 is one whose flesh is found on the table of almost every American's home. It is the swine. "The swine," says the scripture, "is unclean to you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat." This is language too plain to be misunderstood or misapplied.

Again in Deut. 14:8 it is repeated, "Ye shall not eat of their flesh." Shall we take the position that the swine was an unclean animal, and unfit for human food, in the days of Moses, but that the prohibition does not apply to the present? There has been no change, at least none for the better, in this creature. The pig is still an unclean animal; and if it is still unclean, the command, to those who would glorify God in body and spirit, still is, "Of their flesh shall ye not eat."

It seems strange that in Christian homes, where the Bible is supposed to be the rule of life, pork should be eaten. Evidently Dr. Adam Clarke found it difficult to harmonize the practice of pork eating by Christians with the teaching of God's word. When invited to invoke God's blessing upon a meal including pork, he once said: "Lord, bless this bread, these vegetables, and this fruit; and if Thou canst bless under the gospel what Thou didst curse under the law, bless this swine's flesh." That he did not highly esteem swine's flesh is evident; for he once said that if he were to bring a burnt offering to the devil, he would choose a pig stuffed with tobacco.

Why Was the Pig Made?

THE question arises, Why did God make the swine, if it is not to be eaten? — For the same reason that He made the rat, the cat, the mouse, and other scavengers. These creatures all serve a useful purpose. They eat up decaying matter, which would pollute and poison the air. If a hog discovers the putrid body of another hog, he will devour it with the keenest relish and gusto. The hog will eat snakes, rats, cats, or mice, dead or alive. Is there need of any further evidence that this creature is unclean? And if it is unclean, is it not unsuitable for man as food?

There was a time when I was rather fond of sugar-cured ham. One day, I called at a butcher shop to make my usual purchase. The butcher said, "We have none to-day." And then, to my surprise, he added, "The stuff is not fit to eat." He gave me his reasons for thinking so. They appealed to me with such force that I concluded to deny myself, ever after, sugar-cured ham. In slaughter houses, pigs are kept for the chief purpose of eating up the entrails and other refuse from animals that are slaughtered. This butcher had closely observed the habits of the hog; and without knowing what the Bible says, he voiced the word of Scripture, "Of their flesh shall ye not eat; . . . they are unclean to you."

To convert this butcher seems to have been easier than it is to convert some people who profess to be obedient to the heavenly vision.

In referring to this class, the Lord said: "I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, . . . which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels." Isa. 65:2-4. Certainly it is displeasing to God to have those who claim to obey His word, eat the flesh of swine.

Paves the Way for Cancer

GOD withholds no good thing from His people, and never has. He says, "Eat ye that which is good." Isa. 55:2. Pork, being an impure food, fills the blood with impurities, which pave the way for various filthy diseases, chief among which is cancer. Cancerous tissue grows only in filth.

Pork produces grossness of body and of mind. Some one has well said, "He who eats pig becomes pigified." This is not an extreme statement. Look around among your friends, and see if you cannot single out the pig eaters. True culture and refinement are seldom found in one who feeds largely on pig. A person cannot partake of such gross foods without defiling the body — God's temple — physically and morally.

Daniel, when commanded to eat the meats on the royal table of Babylon, "purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with . . . the king's meat." Daniel was blessed with health and long life. He was blessed spiritually. Those who subsisted on the king's food, shortened their lives thereby, and their gross mental state made it impossible for God to communicate with them. It meant physical and spiritual death to them.

Paul, in addressing the Christian church, said: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy." 1 Cor. 3:16, 17. They that eat "swine's flesh . . . and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:17. This is not an arbitrary exaction on God's part, but it is the sure result of pursuing a course contrary to His established laws and will. It is simply a matter of sowing and reaping. Pork eating is one of the fleshly lusts which war against the soul, and it may shut men who cling to its use out of the kingdom.

Increasing by Leaps and Bounds

M. M. VERNEUIL, of Paris, an eminent investigator, after careful research and observation, concluded that cancer was caused most frequently by the eating of pork. In fact, he questioned whether this was not the sole cause. He says, "In the course of a long and laborious surgical career, it was observed that the Israelites who follow closely the law of Moses respecting the use of pork as an article of food are always refractory to cancer."

M. Roux, of Lausanne, gives his experience as confirmatory of the conclusions reached by Verneuil. While the use of pork is not the only cause of cancer, yet cancer is increasing at a tremendous rate in all flesh-eating countries. Indeed, it is practically confined to these countries, and to flesh eaters in them. In all flesh-eating countries, pork forms one of the leading foods used.

While pork may not be an exciting cause of cancer, it certainly is a predisposing cause. I mean, by this, that it prepares the tissue soil for this abnormal growth. Ehrlich, a famous German investigator, found that when mice were fed on a diet of rice, they could not be inoculated with cancer; and when fed on meat, the implanted cancer tissue developed quickly, and caused the death of the animals so fed. He also found that when cancerous mice were put on a purely rice diet, the tumors ceased to grow, and in some cases actually disappeared.

Eats 130 Pounds of Meat

IN Great Britain, there are cities where the death rate from cancer is already greater than that from tuberculosis. Dr. L. Duncan Bulkley, the noted American skin and cancer specialist, in referring to this, calls attention to the fact that the use of meat in England has doubled during the past generation, until now they consume 130 pounds each year for every man, woman, and child. During the time that the use of meat has doubled, cancer, he says, has increased fourfold.

In the United States, the annual consumption of meats per capita is higher than in England. It has reached 172 pounds. Cancer also has increased to an alarming extent. Dr. Charles Reed, ex-president of the American Medical Association, says: "I am no alarmist, but I cannot shut my eyes to the facts that are forced upon me in my daily experience. That experience teaches me that cancer is increasing in this country literally by leaps and bounds. Tuberculosis causes more deaths than any other one disease. Cancer is now second on the list. In less than ten years, if present tendencies are permitted to continue, their position in the death-dealing category will be reversed."

With this much-to-be-dreaded disease so rapidly on the increase, and in view of the universal testimony of experts that it is a meat eaters' disease, pork being the most objectionable of all flesh foods in use, it is not difficult to conclude that the free use of swine's flesh is possibly the chief cause of the tremendous increase in mortality from cancer. Would we not therefore do well to follow the command, "Of their flesh shall ye not eat"?